Playing with food: Exploring the effects of food messaging in video games on adolescents

Abstract

The effects of food messaging in video games remain unexplored despite the popularity of the medium among adolescents and the growing potential for food messaging in video games. My three research objects were to: (1) identify how healthy and unhealthy foods are depicted in video games; (2) gather adolescent and other stakeholder perceptions of the effects of food messaging in video games on adolescent food habits; and (3) test the effects of healthy and unhealthy food messaging in video games on the attitudes and food choices of adolescents empirically. I did a content analysis of popular video games to address (1). I interviewed adolescents, parents and video game industry representatives to address (2). I did an experiment to address (3). This thesis provides recommendations for adolescent media literacy training to address food messaging in video games.